Pages

Time--2017 A to Z Theme

My theme for the 2018 Blogging from A to Z April Challenge is "Cleaning the Clutter"--I might literally be cleaning my closets or figuratively clearing the excess from some other part of my life. I'm sure you can think of other things this could mean for you as well.

Always a work in progress--welcome to my blog...

**

Monday, October 1, 2018

If I Didn't Care (#BOTB) (#IWSG)

If we don't have some bad in life it's harder to appreciate the good. Even though I've had my share of the bad, I can't say that I'd envy anyone else's life no matter how good it seemed...

Insecure Writer's Support Group

Join us on the first Wednesday of each month in Alex J. Cavanaugh'sInsecure Writer's Support Group--a forum of writers who gather to talk about writing and the writer's life. For a complete list of participants visit Alex's Blog.

October 3 question - How do major life events affect your writing? Has writing ever helped you through something?

Maybe I care too much about what's going on in my life even though some might say that I don't seem to care about much of anything. Over the past year or so I haven't been writing much and I can point to major life events hitting me from all sides. It's all been a distraction for sure, but somewhere within me I have the power to write. I've seemed to have developed a strange aversion to writing of late.

A lazy streak within me plays a discernible role in my lack of writing initiative, but still there is a spark that is failing to roar into a blaze of creativity. Frequently I think about what I want to write or what I might write eventually. Ideas and words continually flow in and out of my sphere of thought. Then I get distracted by my world, my life. Writing gets put on hold again.

In my past I have often retreated into writing as a means of expressing myself or venting my emotions. Writing for the most part helped me get through high school and college--and I mean writing aside from that which was required by my classes. Through stories I could escape into worlds where my real life troubles were translated into fantasy which in turn was cycled into expression of my feelings and my beliefs. My writing was my communication to some unknown reader in some other point in time.

As I have alluded to in previous posts, my writing that has been fueled by my most intensely troubled times has typically been songs. Lately my songwriting drive has returned, not so much due to any painfully emotional times, but a complex series of events and circumstances that have come together to create that perfect storm of dilemma. Don't get me wrong: Life has been good. Still, there is a diversion of thought present that makes me want to escape into song more than story.

In the meantime there are my memoirs to which I must return. There are novels and short stories. I need to write, but for now I apparently don't want to write. Well, I want to write, but I am not compelled in the way that would work to my advantage as a writer.

Writing calls. I keep hearing songs. Those are what I will write for now and hopefully I can find a way to get them recorded in a way that does them justice.

Anyone want to start a band?

Battle of the Bands

Battle of the Bandsisthe blogging event started byFar Away Seriesand now hosted byStMcC Presents Battle of the Bands. This event happens each month on the 15th and on some blogs there is also a Battle on the 1st of the month. My blog is one of those with a second Battle on the 1st of the month. The premise is simple: Listen to the songs presented below and then in the comments vote for your favorite and tell us why you liked it. Then visit the links listed near the bottom of this post for more Battle action.

If I Didn't Care

The #IWSG questions along with my current patterns of thought in this year led me to use this wonderful song that has been a tune that I've heard throughout my life. Some of you might remember this song from the film The Shawshank Redemption. It's a song that has been oft recorded since its original introduction in 1939 by The Ink Spots. Such a haunting melody expressing thoughts that we've all likely experienced.

Caring can be painful and distracting, but if we never cared about anything then we would lack passion. A life without passion is not a life that I'd want to live.

The Ink Spots "If I Didn't Care" (1939)

As with many other BOTB participants, I usually will avoid an original. In the case of this recording, since it is so old it might be new for some of you. Anyway, it's old and maybe it's not your cup of tea. You'll just have to listen and decide...

David Cassidy "If I Didn't Care" (1974)

If you were around in the 1970's then you'll likely know the name of David Cassidy He was quite a teen idol back then with his string of hit records and as a regular on the television show The Partridge Family. I saw him live in 1981 when he was touring with a stage production of George M. Cohan's Little Johnny Jones. After that I had a whole new perspective of his talent as he did a nice job in that show. Anyway, here is his more modern take on "If I Didn't Care"...

Time to Vote!I do care about your vote so I hope you will participate. What's your favorite between these two choices? Which song version do you like best? You don't have to know about music to have an opinion since it all comes down to your own personal taste.

Please vote on your favorite by letting us know your choice in the comment section and tell us why you prefer the version you chose. Then after you've finished here, please visit the other blogs listed below who may or may not be participating this time around. And if you've put up your own BOTB contest let us know that as well so we can vote on yours.

Same place, same time next week. Come back to see which version wins the most votes. Have a great week. I will try to do the same.

When have you cared so much about something that it interfered with your life? Do you ever feel like a passionate personal pursuit has been in vain? Have you ever wanted to just totally get away from your life to do something that might seem crazy to others?

I haven't felt much like writing creatively for years. I hope to change that by getting more involved with daily memes that challenge me in this capacity. We'll see how that goes.

I thought I'd give my vote to David Cassidy but I think I prefer the dream vintage sound of The Ink Spots. How cool you actually saw David! I had such a crush on him when I was a kid but then what girl from the 70s didn't?

Having children means I care so much that it interferes with my sleep all too often. There has been plenty of times I wish that I could just get away from life circumstances and to put everything far, far, far behind me but then reality hits. There's no escaping life. It will follow me no matter where I go because I care too much.

You're right about life being a commitment and parenting definitely isn't for the weak or faint hearted person, either. lol

You write your posts so well that you don't need to do anything more. I feel like I need it, though. Maybe, it's because I don't journal or do other creative writing but what ever the reason is I convinced that I need to push myself in that direction and while I enjoy that push I'll do it. Thanks for visiting and have a good weekend, my friend. :)

I had to chuckle:The Ink Spots versus David Cassidy"Diversity", thy name is Arlee Bird.

Just the pairing of those two, alone, makes this Battle a winner. Ha! Love it!

Well, of course I know the song, and of course I know both participants -- and indeed I like them both.

But the harmonizing and the dreamy old-tyme quality of it -- yeah, soitently, I'm voting for THE INK SPOTS, which I'm sure you already knew.

But I also want to throw in a plug for one of my very favorite "Guilty Pleasure" movies, "THE SPIRIT OF '76":

Some year way in the future, the USA is on the verge of collapse, and in order to save it, David Cassidy agrees to go back to 1776 to retrieve the Constitution, which has been lost. (Overlook the fact that the Constitution did not yet exist in 1776.)

But the wreck of a tub that Cassidy calls a time travel machine accidentally lands him and his crew in 1976 instead, and none of them know the difference.

It's one of those ultra-silly movies but I love it and own it and watch it at least every couple years. It cracks me up, and it will be like a real trip back to Groovy 1976 in the Waybac Machine for anybody who lived through that year and can remember it.

Hey, I wanna see that movie! (sorry to jump in here Lee; just wanted to quickly comment and tell Stephen that I would like to see that movie because it's my dream to have a time machine take me back to years 1976-1982!) Do you own the DVD or do you get it from Netflix or some other streaming service. Sounds like a great escape movie...

MICHELE ~I've heard people say the movie is just stupid, but I love it (in a kind of sick, twisted, demented has-been from the 1970s kinda way).

It's not going to appeal to everyone, but I think you would perhaps enjoy it as much as I do, based on your comment here.

If you like 'SPINAL TAP', Monty Python, and that kind of silliness, I think you're the target audience for 'The Spirit Of '76'. And I appreciate that David Cassidy was able to poke fun at himself and that whole era in which he became a household name.

I own the DVD... I also own the music soundtrack on CD. But the movie has been completely uploaded to YouTube and is probably available (and maybe in better quality) at Dailymotion.com

Michele, no problem about joining in a conversation here. I'd like to go back to 1972, but anytime in the seventies and eighties would be fine with me. Those were some of my best years (and at times, worst).

Hi Lee. Just about every time this writing subject comes up, you and I are in about the same spot with it: STALLED! I totally hear ya on the lack of enthusiasm or oomph to get busy with it. Someone was just asking me the other day if I had given up on my book. I hemmed and hawed and finally just said "yeah, I guess so." And there you have it...It does seem that you have developed some oomph though because you just succeeded in writing a pretty cool song (Let's Run) so you're in good shape. At this age, slow and easy is the way we need to live life...And I would like to take that slow and easy stuff real serious sometime... (although it always seems like I'm going a million miles an hour; and my mom, who often stays here at my house, remarks all the time, "I don't know why you don't weigh 90 lbs! You're jumping up and down and going all the time. You never stay still!" So slow and easy might be a ways off in my future yet...

As for your battle, the Ink Spots song was enjoyable as was the clip but I'm giving my vote to David Cassidy. Back when he passed earlier in the year, I started putting together a David Cassidy tribute post so I went to check if I had included his cover of "If I Didn't Care" but I hadn't. It's added now though. I have 36 David Cassidy songs in that playlist. I love all those Partridge Family songs because, well, you know, it's my decade. But I wasn't all that familiar with his other works so in putting together the tribute post I discovered what a talented singer he was. That's neat that you got to see him perform live.

It's a vote for David Cassidy for me on this one. Cool battle. And I'm glad you used the original.(I recently heard some Ink Spots music; I think it might've been on Shady's blog; they were new-to-me).

Michele, I know some of the sources of my discontent (?)--disillusionment (?), or whatever it might be called. There are issues that I need to confront or resolve so I can move forward more easily. But then again maybe I'm just conjuring up excuses for not doing more of what I'd like to do. The music in me is keeping me fueled these days. Maybe the writing will come again soon.

David Cassidy is an our generational thing. My parents loved The Ink Spots so I learned to appreciate the group through them.

Life events have a way of changing our direction many times over the years. I've also hit a wall in desire to write, although I'm forcing myself to at least finish the one I started last fall. After that, we'll see what happens.

Hmmm...I like both and it shows Cassidy's range plus how much he wanted to please his dad by choosing this old standard. I am going for David Cassidy because he cared too much, I think. He is excellent in his handling of this song which appealed more to him than his girlie fans. I have been told I care too much and, yes, I often neglect myself or my home (housework) to help a friend in need. Right now, we have some good songs but most are just repetitive offering not much more than bubblegum. In the 60's, with so much strife in the world, the music world was amazing...just look at Woodstock

"Caring can be painful and distracting, but if we never cared about anything then we would lack passion. A life without passion is not a life that I'd want to live."

Boy, I agree with that! In general, I'm all in or not in at all. In response to your question, I've gotten fully immersed in one pursuit or another, to the exclusion of all else, more than once in my life. My Type A personality easily falls into that pit (and likes it while it's going on; I'm not gonna lie). In truth, I only crawl out of that passion pit when I see a new obsession on the horizon. Let's leave it at that, ha ha.

As for your EXCELLENT battle, I gotta go Inkspots. Little known Cherdo fact: David Cassidy gets on my last nerve, even though he has talent. He always seemed soooo full of himself in interviews...definitely Jack Cassidy's boy. That is a full on turn off for me. Yuck.

Cherdo, when my passion wanes so does my interest. I'll almost always see things through if I'm doing something as a job, but I often lose personal drive--especially in more recent years. But I am retired now so I guess just drifting off into the sunset isn't all a bad thing.

I can understand long periods of non-writing, but songs do count as my favourite musician always says. I'm not a great practitioner of writing every day so I don't hold others to it. Life would be dull if all we did was write.

Now to that battle: I like both versions but I lean towards the Inkspots as the singing has such melodious depth - and that video has to be classic. Simple and nothing like the ones I attempted to produce.

Thats a great song! Beautifully done by both artists. I like the deeper tones of Ink Spots though, and the big band behind him just hits the spot for the mood. David was great at this one though. He really was talented.

Writing songs is still writing, and you are expressing yourself creatively whether it is stories or songs. Songs are just stories set to music, right?

Anna, some of the things that I've written have the potential of hurting someone which is why those pieces never see the light of day or are encrypted enough so that the real story is never recognized.

I did not go thru and count the votes to this point, but you seem to have a pretty even battle going on here. I love that you have dipped that far back in the past, and added a very counter-intuitive choice in Cassidy.

Both versions have something special going on to my ears. The original? Original, with a sound that almost cannot be duplicated. Cassidy? He really shows some talent that I had no idea he possessed here. He does an excellent job on this number, and I'm going to give him my vote because he surprised me so much.

I have long thought that adversity fuels almost all creativity. It seems that song writers are generally young when they go thru challenges (or at least PERCEIVE that they have challenges) and write their best stuff. I have trouble thinking of seasoned song writers that wrote good material late in life. At least in the rock genre. Jazz, classical, and Broadway musical writers don't have that trouble as much.

6 Gun, adversity and life stuff is more conducive to songwriting because I can interweave the songs with my life and don't have to worry so much about keeping track of the continuity of a story narrative.

Songwriting for me can occur in increments for a while until the thing hits me with its entirety.

As for the songs, I like the original. Shawshank is one of my favourite movies, and that song is definitely associated with it.

I've often read that it's good for writers to have other creative pursuits. I think it's great that you can turn to music and songwriting when you're not feeling up for fictions and memoirs. Nothing wrong with that--you're still creating.

Gwen, most events don't drive me to write especially if I'm very involved in living those events. When I'm in a sort of dormant state like depression of sorts then I'll probably turn to writing--but it's mostly kind of reflective in content.

Your post makes me think of Kris Rusch's latest post on her blog. In it, she has a great test to see if you should keep writing. In essence, if the thought of quitting writing makes you stressed or upset, keep at it. If not, maybe it's time for your art to find a different form.

It sounds like you've already discovered that by focusing on songwriting. :)

This past month I was in a cleaning frenzy, preparing for a visit from my folks. After two years since their last visit, the clutter build-up was monstrous. Now that the visit is over, I'm free. Free to go back to clutter management, or write, or knit, or anything. Today I chose to kayak and then fiddle away at the computer. Tomorrow, perhaps I'll stick my toe back into the waters of writing. Who knows?

Go ahead and say something. Don't be afraid to speak your mind.I normally try to respond to all comments in the comment section so please remember to check the "Email follow-up comments" box if you want to participate in the comment conversation.

For Battle of the Bands voting the "Anonymous" commenting option has been made available though this version is the least preferred. If voting using "anonymous" please include in your comment your name (first only is okay) and city you are voting from and the reason you chose the artist you did.

If you know me and want to comment but don't want to do it here, then you can send me an email @ jacksonlee51 at aol dot com.

A to Z 2019!!

Bird Watchers

Follow by Email

I Am BlogMan!

Who's responsible for this blog anyway?

A juggler of words and phrases. My main blog is Tossing It Out. The focus blog for the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge can now be found at a-to-zchallenge.com where updates will be posted until the event in April begins.
Wrote By Rote is about memoir writing.
A Few Words is my Sunday contemplation blog.
A Faraway View is about dreams. Pick what you like or look at them all. I love blogging!